AAMI Revises Hemodialysis Water Treatment Standard - AAMI RDRD62

April 4, 2007 // Published as a news service by IHS

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The new sections, covering "organic scavengers" and chemical injection systems, were deemed necessary because differences in water supply quality and municipal water treatment practices can dramatically affect the removal of chemical contaminants in hemodialysis applications and the committee felt supplemental guidance was merited, said the AAMI.

The new standard, American National Standards Institute (ANSI)/ AAMI RD62:2006 replaces ANSI/AAMI RD62:2001 - Water treatment equipment for hemodialysis applications.

"Chloramines are highly toxic to hemodialysis patients and need to be adequately removed by the water treatment system," said Richard Ward, Ph.D., chair of RDDC and professor of medicine in the University of Louisville's Kidney Disease Program.

"Evolving municipal water treatment practices have made the conventional approach - carbon adsorption - unreliable in some circumstances. We have included in the standard other technologies that may be used to replace or supplement carbon adsorption."

To address this issue of dependence on local water conditions, the committee added sections to the standard that deal with alternative and supplementary methods to removing toxic chloramines from water.

As was the case with its predecessor, the revised standard covers devices used to treat water intended for use in the delivery of hemodialysis. The standard's scope includes water used for the preparation of concentrates from powder at a dialysis facility, the preparation of dialysate and the reprocessing of dialyzers for multiple uses.

The standard covers all devices, piping and fittings between the point at which potable water is delivered to the water treatment system and the point of use of the treated water. Examples of components included within the standard's scope are water treatment devices, online water quality monitors such as conductivity monitors and piping systems for the distribution of treated water.

While the standard is written principally to address water treatment systems for dialysis facilities treating multiple patients, all of its provisions apply equally to water treatment systems used in applications where a single patient may be treated - such as in a home dialysis or acute hospital dialysis setting - except where otherwise noted in the standard.

Source: Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation (AAMI).